Redshirt Half
by railmaniac
Summary: Ranma finds himself sent across time to the 23rd century and he has to make a living till he finds a way back. The only problem is, the things out to kill him these days are far more dangerous than Dojo destroyers and disgruntled Amazons. Can he survive long enough to get where he has to be? Or will the colour of his shirt determine his fate? *NOW UNDERGOING REWRITE*
1. Prologue

_**Ranma knew it was too good to last. All his problems seemed to be disappearing.**_

_After the failed wedding, his and Akane's fathers stopped pressurizing them to get married – no doubt they were encouraged by Nodoka's Katana. His mother herself seemed to considered the entire question of Ranma's manhood answered and closed for good. Ryouga showed up less frequently, opting to spend more of his time with Akari at her farm. Ukyo had not shown her face since the wedding debacle. Kuno had passed his classes and moved on to a college away from Nerima; and his hentai squad, deprived of their fearless leader and directly exposed to the ire of Ranma and Akane, seemed to have decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse seemed to have packed up and left for China._

_Happosai and Kodachi were still... well, Happosai and Kodachi. But with lots of spare time on his hands, Ranma found their antics a nuisance at best._

_Without the fathers to pressurize them, Akane and Ranma found themselves getting along quite well. It helped that they were given lots of useful advice and timely interventions by Kasumi and Ranma's mother._

_In short, everything was going too well for Ranma. And since his name was Ranma Saotome, he knew the other shoe was about to drop at any time._

_**And he was proved right when Akane was kidnapped by a man named Khan.**_

* * *

"**Saotome to the transporter room"**

The call over the comm system woke up Ranma from his musings of the past. He decided to reminisce at a later point, and headed over to the transporter room.

He was still uneasy over using the matter transporter, privately wondering if it was killing him every time and assembling an identical clone on the other end. He had long decided that if it was so, he would never be able to tell the difference... but the doubts lingered. Certainly, his _ki_ was a pittance of what it used to be since he'd entered this future world; and he suspected the transporter was bleeding his _ki_ out every time he used it.

_But that was neither here nor there._

He entered the transporter room to find Commander Kyle at the controls. He greeted him.

"Evening commander. What's going on?"

Kyle looked up and smiled "Evening, Saotome. There's been a last minute addition to the away team – the Captain felt that your 'special' skills would be useful on this mission."

"Gee commander. You need my knitting skills on this mission?" Ranma joked.

"Of course we do, Saotome. But meanwhile, your ability to kick ass without weapons will make you right at home on this planet. It seems they hate to use weapons too, and not because they're some sort of peacenik hippies!" Kyle answered.

"Interesting" Ranma mused "What's this place?"

"Capella IV" answered Captain James T Kirk, just as he entered the transporter room. Kyle and Ranma stood to attention immediately.

Kirk continued, "Seems Kyle has told you everything you need to know. Just keep in mind that these people are very quick to take offense, and very dangerous if angered. Be very, very careful."

"Don't worry, boss. I'm always careful" Ranma assured the Captain. "It comes with the red shirt I'm wearing."

"Well, just remember that most of the people I knew who wore that shirt, are dead now." Kirk said, sternly, and Ranma appeared appropriately chastened.

The whole team – Kirk, Doctor McCoy and the security team _(comprised of Saotome and Grant)_ stood up on the transporter dias. Kyle nodded at Kirk, and Kirk gave the command.

"**Energize."**


	2. Meet the Capellans

Four figures materialized in the middle of the Capellan village. As Maab approached them, he took the time to examine the humans.

All of them were pathetically short of course. The fair haired one must be the leader. The older looking one was of course the healer who had come before. A healer! What a dishonorable profession, trying to make the diseased live! The weak deserved to perish, that was just the Capellan way.

The other two in their red costumes must be the guards. Not even worthy of his attention, these puny aliens.

Let's see what they're made of, Maab thought to himself and moved forward to challenge them.

"Halt! You are of the earth vessel?"

The aliens were duly startled, before the leader began to reply "I'm Captain Kirk-"

He was immediately interrupted by the healer, who said "We come with open hearts and hands". Well, that was the proper greeting... but still to interrupt a leader and have him do nothing at all? That sort of thing could get a Capellan killed. These humans were weak, just like his Klingon ally had told him.

Speaking of whom, the earthmen would be noticing Kras any moment now... there, one of the red shirted ones saw him and his eyes went comically wide.

"A Klingon!" he shouted, pointing at Kras with his finger – which Maab thought was a completely pointless action – before he went for his weapon.

There was always that one guy who just refused to learn, Maab thought, as one of his aides reacted immediately and threw his _kligat_ at the alien. Too bad now this fool will never learn, Maab thought, because a _kligat_ thrown at full force was capable of going right through this puny alien.

Which is why Maab was quite surprised when the other alien simply reached out and caught the _kligat_ mid-flight just fingers-width away from the other man's chest.

Now Maab took a good look at the fourth member of the aliens' team. He was even smaller than the rest of them and looked young enough to be a mere boy; but now Maab looked in his eyes and saw for the first time the look of a real warrior. He might be small, but he had the look of one who is bigger than everyone else.

Everyone else took out their _kligats_ and were ready to throw, and this man was not even intimidated. He looked ready to catch every other _kligat_ thrown at him – and he looked capable of it too.

Maab raised his hand for his men to hold. The alien who had drawn his weapon put it back in his holster at a hint from the alien who had caught the _kligat_.

"Who are you, stranger?" Maab asked, addressing the slight alien.

The boy fixed his predatorial gaze at him, freezing Maab in place for a moment, before the alien abruptly broke into a smile, making him look even younger. He casually tossed the _kligat_ away, scratched the back of his head with his hands and said

"**I'm Ranma Saotome. Sorry about this."**

* * *

_Nerima, 1990s_

Ranma was sorry he had ever asked Nabiki to tell him about Akane. She was gonna tell him anyway, but now she made him pay everything he would conceivably have for the next couple of months. And he had to promise her a photoshoot in both boy and girl forms.

Having paid the price, the news that she delivered itself was bad enough – that Akane had gotten herself kidnapped. Again.

Taking this as a cue, Kuno, Ryouga and Happosai appeared out of nowhere to punish Ranma for this perceived transgression ("RANMA, HOW DARE YOU LET AKANE-CHAN BE KIDNAPPED").

After beating the lot of them, he went back to Nabiki, promised her his firstborn and then she told him what the kidnappers had told her, where to find Akane.

At which point Ranma's 'friends' attacked him right again ("ONLY I MAY HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF RESCUING AKANE-CHAN!"), forcing Ranma to beat the lot of them right again.

It was hours later that Ranma found himself on a trail that was already growing cold. As he roof-hopped to the warehouse Nabiki had told him about, he knew for certain this was a trap. But Akane's life was in danger and there was only one way to spring the trap. By putting his head right into it.

_Saotome Anything Goes Martial Arts Special Technique Probing-Touch-Of-The-Stupid-Coyote._

He should be ready for anything. There's no saying what he would find in this warehouse. All his sense felt on high alert and he felt like he could face anything. He was ready for anything.

He was not ready for the sight of Akane calmly eating dinner with an Indian man.

* * *

Ranma Saotome was broken out of his reverie when dinner arrived. After the Capellans had led them into a tent to see the _teer_, their leader, and Captain Kirk and Dr McCoy had started negotiations while Ranma and Grant had glared at the Capellan soldiers like the bodyguards they were, Ranma's mind had wandered back to those last days in Nerima, just before he was brought to the 23rd century.

Suddenly the negotiations seemed to have concluded – or at the very least, stalled on account of the presence of the Klingon – and a meal had begun.

The strafleet men were escorted to a tent and told that the _teer_ would see them tomorrow. But Ranma just knew that trouble would start much before then.

And he was right. A fight broke out in the middle of the night. Ranma tackled a couple of Capellans and dispatched them with efficiency before he realized the fight was primarily between Capellans and other Capellans. He hesitated, wondering which side he ought to support. Over to the side he saw the Captain tackling the Klingon and rushed to support him, when the Capellan who welcomed them first – Maab – entered and made a proclamation.

"Akaar is dead. I am the _teer_."

The Klingon rushed to capitalize on the changed circumstances. "Kill them now!", he urged Maab.

"Wait." said the Captain, showing his skill for quickly assessing a changed situation. "If you lead these people, be certain you make the right decisions."

"Is the leader of the Ten Tribes afraid?" taunted the Klingon "Let me kill him for you," he sneered.

"Or let the Klingon and me fight." countered Kirk "It might amuse you."

Ranma had almost protested, insisting that as the unarmed combat expert of the group, _he_ should be the one doing any such fighting. But he realized that countering the Captain at this delicate stage would be taken as a sign of weakness on the part of the Captain, and so he held his silence.

Nevertheless, the Captain's bravado seemed to have impressed Maab. "Perhaps to be a _teer_ is to see in new ways" he said "I begin to like you, earthman, and I saw fear in the Klingon's eye"

The Capellans began to herd the earthmen back to their tent. Ranma met the Captain's eye and silently indicated he could take them if they wanted to make a run for it. But the Captain shook his head slightly, and Ranma would follow the Captain's lead. He's the boss after all.

But as they were being led into the tent, Ranma's sharp hearing picked up the tail end of the conversation of Maab and the Klingon...

"We had an agreement!" the Klingon protested.

"That too may change, Klingon" replied Maab, rather blithely. _Power goes to people's head pretty fast_, Ranma thought.

* * *

_Nerima 1990s_

_Power corrupts,_ thought Ranma looking at the tableau in front of him.

The man at the head of the table looked like he was a formidable martial artist at one time before he had let himself be corrupted by the decadence of wealth. And yet there was something about him, that gave one an impression of immense power.

Ranma was in the _Umi-sen-ken_ of course, but as soon as he got within sight the man – who was sipping wine and laughing at something Akane had said – suddenly stopped and turned in Ranma's general direction. Then he looked straight _at _ Ranma and said "Hello, Ranma Saotome. My name is Khan. Welcome to my house."


	3. Khan you be mine

"_Welcome Ranma Saotome. My name is Khan Noonein Singh. You may know me as the facilitator of the **Eugene** movement... no? Pity, you should follow current events more, but I am in no manner insulted._

_But where are my manners? Please, do take a seat. Join me, for supper."_

Ranma didn't trust Khan one bit but he was not about to turn down free food. He sat across from Khan, and whispered urgently to Akane "what the hell are you doing here!"

"Oh Ranma, there's no need to be rude. Mr Khan offered me a seat in his prestigious organization. Isn't it lovely? And he's such a charming man..." Akane replied, looking as star struck as she used to do with Dr Tofu.

Ranma looked at Khan with suspicion. "Everyone at home thinks you have been kidnapped!" he whispered to Akane.

"Kidnapped? That's ridiculous!" Akane started, before remembering some of their shared history and mentally backtracking. "As you can see, I'm perfectly alright here."

"Let me tell you about our organization, Mr Saotome" Khan began. Ranma already hated him – he was entirely too smug and loved the sound of his own voice a bit too much. In Ranma's experience only loonies tended to monologue – sensible people just talk enough to convey their points across.

_(It must be noted here that Ranma's social interaction skills were largely taught to him by his father, so he was a bit biased towards brevity in his conversations. In this case, however, both the panda and the part-time girl were right about people who monologue.)_

"We are trying to improve conditions for humanity – which you'll agree is a laudable goal – in the simplest manner. We aim to improve humanity itself!" Khan exposited.

"Isn't that what that Hitler chap was trying to do?" Ranma asked.

A flicker passed through Khan's face and for a moment he looked like the insane megalomaniac he was instead of an urbane host. The moment, however, passed soon and Khan was smiling again.

"I see that you are not as aloof about the world as you pretend to be, Mr Saotome."

* * *

Ranma was not as oblivious to Capellan politics as he pretended to be. The reason he was chosen for this mission was because he understood the warrior culture of the Capellans better. And he did, to a large extent. The Capellan's philosophy was much like his own – everything is training, become strong as all costs, life of a Capellan is fraught with peril and anything goes when it comes to combat. So pretty much Ranma's outlook, if you take out the "defend those who can't defend themselves" part of it.

But that last part was a very important part of what made him Ranma Saotome. Which is why he was not about to stand still when the big cheese was about to kill a pregnant woman.

Ranma drop kicked Maab, and Kirk leapt to pull the woman – Eleen – out of harms way. In the ensuing fight, Ranma discovered that Capellans took and gave hits like Ryouga. Fighting five Ryougas at once was a novel experience for him, and he might even have won if they hadn't taken the rest of the team hostage.

Maab, glaring at Ranma while rubbing his jaw, said "No man may touch the wife of the teer."

Eleen pointed at Kirk with her head raised high "I was proud to obey the laws. Kill him first. He laid hands upon me. It is my right to see him die."

After the Capellans left leaving only the guards behind, Ranma apologized to the Captain. "Captain... I'm sorry... I acted without thinking."

"That's alright Ranma. If you hadn't, I would have." said Kirk with a smile.

"That's all very nice" said McCoy, "but we are still their prisoners. And condemned to death if I understand their laws correctly. Jim, why did you stop Saotome from wiping the floor with them outside, you know he's quite capable of doing that?"

"At the time" said Kirk, "I still hoped a diplomatic solution would be possible. Just with the new leader instead of the old one. Besides, Bones, what would we do even if we got away from them? We are on their world, and out communicators and phasers are still with them.

"But the situation has changed now", he continued "Saotome, Grant... the next time we get a chance to escape, I want you both to take it. Even if it means leaving other members of the team behind. Try to reacquire our communicators and contact Enterprise."

* * *

_Nerima, 1990s_

"All that is very nice, but why the hell did you kidnap Akane?" demanded Ranma.

"Ranma, I told you-" began Akane, but Khan interrupted her.

"I did not kidnap her. I merely had to conveyed to you I had kidnapped her. Because I wanted you here, without the interference of your fathers." He said.

Alarm bells started to ring inside Ranma's head. With a panic he looked at Khan and then at the food he had been gorging on.

"Ah yes, of course there's something in the food." said Khan and pressed a button on his chair. Shackles rose out of Ranma's chair and trapped him there before he could react. Normally he should have withdrawn his hands fast enough but whatever was in the food was slowing him down.

"What... what's going on?" demanded Akane.

"Calm down Miss Tendo. I'm merely making sure your fiance does not hurt himself before I finish saying my piece." replied Khan.

"No... I'm done here. Let us go!" yelled Akane, getting up from her chair.

Khan for his part merely stared at her and said in the coldest imaginable voice "_Sit. Down. Tendo._"

The fight seemed to have gone out from Akane as she sat down as if she were deflated. She looked defeated, and... puzzled. How could a pervert like Khan get her – Akane Tendo – to obey him!

"As I was saying" continued Khan as if nothing had happened "we exist for the betterment of the human species, yes by making a better human. And before you cast stones at our motives, you might want to look at your own existence, Ranma Saotome..."

"What do ya mean!" Ranma slurred.

"The fact that you exist, is itself a result of centuries of eugenic selection, just without the much more recent invention of DNA resequencing." Seeing that Ranma wasn't getting it, Khan decided to put it in simpler terms "You, both of you, are the results of generations of strong martial artists marrying strong martial artists. And now, you two are expected to marry and propagate your genes – genes selected for, among other things, strength, stamina, relfexes and faster healing.

"And of course, my favourite part. The predisposition to harvest life energy. _Ki_, I believe you call it."

"There's no predisposition!" yelled Ranma, losing control of his emotions due to being drugged an restrained. "Anyone can use their _ki _if they train hard enough!"

"Can they?" countered Khan. "Martial artists spend their entire lives practising and even at their peak, the amount of _ki_ they have is just enough to push them that much further in their relfexes, stamina and healing. But that is a whole order of magnitude different from generating hurricanes, shooting blasts of energy..." Khan leered at Ranma "becoming a girl..."

"And" he added, while blocking Akane, who had by this time regained control of herself and attacked Khan with her mallet for being a pervert "manifesting a household tool." he backhanded Akane, who fell down and stayed there.

"Akane!" yelled Ranma, struggling against the restraints which were not giving at all.

"Oh don't worry... she's just asleep" said Khan as he got up and sauntered towards Ranma. Ranma now noticed that his earlier observations of what would in a normal human being be indications of decadence were wrong when it came to Khan. But then, Khan was not a normal human being.

"You have travelled most of Asia, met several martial artists. You know what I say is true. You know how many people can do what you can do with _ki_, and how much most people – even trained martial artists – can do with it. Or" sneered Khan "did you really think you earned your talent?"

Ranma was furious. He knew talent was not something you earned, but he had always been proud of earning his strength the hard way. The right way. Not through shortcuts like Akane or Kuno. He had worked for what he had, dammit.

And now this joker was telling him it's because he was genetically predisposed to it? Fuck him!

"Fuck you!" he told Khan.

"That comes later." replied Khan, who seemed unbothered by Ranma's outburst. "Let me prove it to you in more ways. Your father, didn't he engage you left and right to the daughter of every martial artist he met? Didn't he once sell you off for rice and pickles?"

"Yeah? What of it?" said Ranma defiantly. Khan was now uncomfortably close to him, yet not so close that he could headbutt the guy. Ranma felt around him in a way that he only felt sometimes when he was in girl form around some of the older male students of Furinkan. But that was ridiculous, since he was in guy form now. Must be the drugs.

"Think carefully Ranma. Did he sell you to _every_ martial artist? You must have met hundreds of martial artists who were well off and had daughters of your age as well. How many of these are your fiancees now? Only the ones who can manifest _ki_."

"That's ridiculous. All those normal martial artists simply wouldn't have taken my engagement as payment-" Ranma stopped, thinking about what he just said.

"Ah, now you are getting the picture." Khan said smiling "everyone's in on it. All those martial artists you met, your father, Akane's father. The Chinese tribal women. Everyone."

"But you are not..." said Ranma smirking. "is that why you kidnapped us, because you were left out of this global conspiracy to harvest _ki_? What do you want from us?"

"What I want, Ranma Saotome" said Khan, his face inches away from Ranma's. "What I want is your genes.

"_**I want you to become the mother of our child"**_

And that's when Ranma headbutted him.


End file.
